Renewable energy becomes partisan issue in LegislatureFeb 23 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - James Redmond Greeley Tribune, Colo.
Energy legislation, especially renewable energy, has not always lived and died on party-line votes. Bills related to renewable energy have joined guns and illegal immigrant driver's licenses as partisan talking points in the Colorado General Assembly, said John Straayer, a political science professor at Colorado State University. Exemplifying the issue, Senate Bill 44 would roll back renewable energy requirements on utility companies and cooperative electric associations. It would reduce the minimum percentage of renewable energy required of investor-owned utilities from 20 percent to 15 percent from 2015 through 2019 and from 30 percent to 15 percent from 2020 and beyond. It also would reduce the minimum percentage for cooperative electric associations from 20 percent to 15 percent for 2020 and thereafter. The bill passed out of the Senate this month in a Republican-controlled, party-line vote and landed in the Democrat-controlled House in the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. The bill is scheduled for a hearing March 2, where it will mostly likely die in what has been dubbed the House's kill committee. However, renewable energy was not always such a partisan political issue. Colorado residents passed a ballot initiative in 2004 creating a higher renewable energy requirement for utility companies. In 2007, the Legislature increased the renewable requirements with broadly bipartisan support, said Pete Maysmith, executive director of Conservation Colorado. However, Democrats pushed through a bill in 2013, greatly increasing the renewable energy requirements for energy cooperatives, many of which serve rural areas. Many feared the increased requirements would jack up electrical costs, Straayer said, and in turn hurt the agriculture industry, increasing its energy costs. Politicizing renewable energy is detrimental to the state, Maysmith said. Making renewable energy a partisan political point, rolling back the requirements could hurt the state's economy and environment. Colorado's renewable industry diversified the state's economy, which in turn helped keep the state from falling into the economic recession, Maysmith said. The renewable energy industry also means jobs for 22,000 people in Colorado, he said, from people installing solar panels on rooftops to others manufacturing parts for wind turbines. The state needs to transition away from "dirty consumable energy," and go to clean renewable energy that will not hurt the state's forests, snow and water, Maysmith said. The renewable energy requirements have done just that, he said. Renewable energy in Colorado is an "overwhelming economic success story," Maysmith said, rolling back renewable energy requirements "is exactly what we should not be doing." Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, is a co-sponsor on SB 44. His district includes part of Weld County, and he disagrees. He said he does not think the rollback would hurt Colorado's economy. Quite the opposite, rolling back renewable energy demands on the rural cooperatives could take financial pressure off of Colorado's agriculture industry, he said. As farmers struggle to keep their operations profitable, the cost on energy can mean the difference between a farmer making a living and having to stop, Sonnenberg said. When utility companies or cooperatives have to produce more renewable energy, those costs will get passed on to the consumer, he said. Consumers and utility cooperatives alike don't need that, he said, and putting the renewable energy standards so high for cooperatives could devastate rural Colorado. Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association, which serves more than 37,000 consumer-members in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties, will watch the outcome of SB 44 from the sidelines, Poudre Valley REA CEO Jeff Wadsworth said Friday. When the 2013 legislation set the higher renewable energy stands to be met in the coming years, Poudre Valley REA started working to meet those standards right away, he said. At this point, "the wheels have been put into motion" to hit the current higher renewable energy standards. The 2013 renewable energy legislation came up in the same session as the Democrat push for increased gun control and gave rise to what some characterized as the "war on rural Colorado," Straayer said. The same movement spawned the argument for a split with Colorado and a 51st state. "Neither party is a monolith," Straayer said. However, over the years, Democrats have generally been more favorable to renewable energies then Republicans, he said. Democrats controlled both chambers of the Legislature and the Governor's Office for the majority of the past decade. During that time, they ran renewable energy policies, some of which, such as the SB 252 in 2013, proved a point of contention. Now Republicans control the Senate, and they have the position to both push back against the renewable energy requirements and continue the political posturing around the "war on rural Colorado," Straayer said. Republicans may not be able to get their renewable energy rollbacks through the House, but they may just be looking for some payback, he said. Although SB 44 might have trouble getting through the House, Sonnenberg said what matters is the discussion. The Legislature has heard rural Colorado does not feel heard, and is now working hard to go back and make things right, he said. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=35292179 |